THE HIGHEST PEDESTAL[ToC]
BY WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE
When I first read in detail the life of Washington, I was profoundly impressed with the moral elevation and greatness of his character, and I found myself at a loss to name among the statesmen of any age or country many, or possibly any, who could be his rival. In saying this I mean no disparagement to the class of politicians, the men of my own craft and cloth, whom in my own land, and my own experience, I have found no less worthy than other men of love and admiration. I could name among them those who seem to me to come near even to him. But I will shut out the last half century from the comparison. I will then say that if, among all the pedestals supplied by history for public characters of extraordinary nobility and purity, I saw one higher than all the rest, and if I were required at a moment's notice to name the fittest occupant for it, I think my choice at any time during the last forty-five years would have lighted, as it would now light, upon Washington.
WASHINGTON IN HISTORY[ToC]
BY CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW
No man ever stood for so much to his country and to mankind as George Washington. Hamilton, Jefferson, Adams, Madison, and Jay each represented some of the elements which formed the Union. Washington embodied them all.